ok, ok....stop laughing, i know, i know... take a deep breath and hear me out.

I dont have the time to spend ANOTHER hundred hours block sanding and im not going to pay an arm and leg to have someone else do it so needless to say the body is far from perfect.

this van started life as a utility cargo van for Cal State Los Angeles (truck number 23). lots and lots of creases and scraps along the bottom half of the body. to add to the trouble there are alot of high spots caused by dents and dings from loading stuff into the van. so i bought a gallon of bond and went to work...the result is less than perfect but i and my family are tired of looking at the multi bondo patches and fading primer.

since the body is far from perfect why spend a ton of money on a paint job?

so, off to Home Depot to get my supplies. i spent 114.23 and that was for everything, right down to the tack clothes. (and about 15 bucks worth of stuff will be returned as i didnt need/use it)

I bought 3 quarts of Regal Red Rustoleum. I got 2 coats per qt. ( that includes the roof also) And it looks like i will be using exactly 3 qt as i looks like it will need 6 coats.

after final sanding i rinsed off the van well and left it out in the sun.

saturday morning it was "in the paint booth"....eerrr garage. I put one coat on in the morning

_________________Vic in SoCal

Mon May 10, 2010 7:37 am

PurpleTeamCruzer

Joined: Fri May 23, 2008 8:04 pmPosts: 24

ok, i just wanted to make sure the pic size was ok...

let me back track as i just found this pic of the van. shortly after i got it i had to get some cragars for it...but you can see the bodies condition..

anyways, i rolled it into the "paint booth" saturday morning and put my first coat on. I was a bit scared because the paint was alot of small bubbles and was pretty orange peely but as described it is self leveling and leveled out nicely.

here is a pic after one coat..still lots of areas where the bondo is peekeing through and the original white paint.. I took these pics with my cell phone. I will crack out my wifes nice digital for the final pics as i am sure everyone will be interested in the finish..

I let it dry all day and by the eve it was ready for another coat.

here is a pic of the 2nd coat...

and a close up of the tail light with 2 coats...

and here is a pic after 3 coats... you can see that i am getting better coverage...

i have rolled 4 coats on this weekend, one int he morning, one in the evening both saturday and sunday. I didnt wetsand at all inbetween coats because the orange peel was pretty low but after 4 coats it looks like it will need a wetsand. im thinking 800 grit, then 2 more coats. give it while to cure , wet sand with 1000 and buff here out.

I am almost positive it will look good my only concern is for how long. i am hoping that by keeping a good wax (hopefully i can find some with UV protectants) and keeping up on it it will look good for a while.

I will post some pics later with my wife digital, again sorry for the crappy pics up to this point.

Cheers,
Vic

_________________Vic in SoCal

Mon May 10, 2010 8:04 am

PurpleTeamCruzer

Joined: Fri May 23, 2008 8:04 pmPosts: 24

here is a quick pic of me applying my 2nd coat for those of you who are still laughing lol

_________________Vic in SoCal

Mon May 10, 2010 8:09 am

PurpleTeamCruzer

Joined: Fri May 23, 2008 8:04 pmPosts: 24

here is a pic with my wifes camera. this is after four coats with NO wet sanding.

and..

and here is a pic after a quick wetsand and a final 5th coat. I could still give it a good wet sand and polish it out but after getting a nice gloss finish i can see what a crappy job i did with the body work. So to me it seems kind of stupid to go through that trouble for a body that really isnt straight at all. I am so confident that i can get a great finish that i plan to paint my old 66 Pontiac black. It is garaged and only out a couple times a month so im not to worried about the wrath of the suns UV rays.

and here is a close up of the tail light corner..again, this four coats, a quick wet sand to knock down the high spots and one final coat, no wet sand of buffing.

and here is my next victim......

_________________Vic in SoCal

Wed May 12, 2010 7:31 pm

EconoUSAparts

Joined: Sun Jul 09, 2006 6:48 pmPosts: 43Location: Ky

Dont ruin that car by brush painting it. It will kill its value. Sell it before you brush or roll paint it. Thats a classic car and it deserves better.

wanted to give anyone who is interested an update. its been over a year now. The van sits outside all day long soaking up that southern california sunshine. red is one of the worst colors for fading and yes after a year the finish did start to lose its gloss finish on all of its upward facing surfaces. the sides still look pretty good. so i cracked out the ole buffing wheel with some polishing compound and less than 30 minutes later it was like new again. im thinking that in a month or so i ll fix all the waves i missed the first time around and repair the drivers side rear quarter where some stupid shithead kids wrecked their go cart into my van while it was parked out front. They fled the scene but i was able to catch them! (another reason a cheap roller paint job worked to my advantage. I would have hated to deal with the kids and their parents to repair my 1000 dollar paint job.) an roll on a couple more coats....maybe i ll custom mix a color

i would consider the roller paint job a success. you just cant beat it for the price and low stress when you get a door ding or have some stupid shithead kids running into it

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